Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett is perhaps the most fascinating personality on Seattle’s team. One moment he’s getting into a scuffle with a teammate at practice, and the next he’s spontaneously conducting the Seahawks Olympics with a group of children on the field at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center after practice is over. So whenever he takes the podium, like he did following Monday’s practice, it’s must-see watching.
The primary subject Bennett was asked about Monday was his heated exchange with tackle Bradley Sowell during Sunday’s practice. Here’s part of his response in video form:
Michael Bennett speaks from Everett Herald on Vimeo.
There will be more about this in the story that runs in Tuesday’s paper, and it will include him talking about he’s “getting younger by the day.”
Bennett also had a lot to say about Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, including an amusing characterization:
“I don’t think I’ve ever really seen him angry, honestly. I always tell him he’s like Benjamin Button, I see him happy all the time, like Willy Wonka, he’s just having a good time.”
Bennett specifically talked about how Carroll compares to other coaches. Jeff Fisher is the head coach of the Los Angeles Rams, who are the current subjects of the HBO reality televisions show Hard Knocks, and Bennett used Fisher as an entryway for talking about Carroll:
“We were watching Hard Knocks and when Jeff Fisher came in at halftime I told my wife, ‘Pete Carroll would be totally different in that moment. That moment right there, he would have come in a lot different, a lot more calm, a lot more motivating, but in a different type of way.’ That’s what makes Pete Carroll different from any other coach, he understands the moment. There’s times you can go too hard on the team and it can change the whole momentum. But he knows exactly how to use his philosophies to the best of his abilities and I think that’s what makes him such a great coach. I don’t think his message has changed at all. It’s always been the same: compete, compete, no complaining, do the best you can every day.”
Bennett said Carroll’s words hold so much more weight because he has a history of success.
“A lot of coaches, they have philosophies, but what does their philosophy really mean? It means **** because they don’t win games. Here you’ve got a guy who’s telling you about his philosophy of how to win when he’s never won. When you have a coach who’s really won he understands his philosophy, people buy in a lot faster because they understand this guy knows what he’s talking about. There’s a lot of coaches who talk about championships, they talk about being in the moment, but they don’t even know what the moment feels like, they don’t even know how to express it or talk about it, so they can’t really home in on it. I think coach Carroll does a great job of doing that. I think he’s elevated the mindset of people to understand there’s more in them and they can be greater.”
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